Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Norse Fable
by Kyle Wotton
Summary: Lara discovers that the Norse mythologies could be true when she is showed a broken spear that is rumoured to have once belonged to the Norse God, Odin. But when someone steals the spear Lara is led on another adventure across the world to save the world.
1. Chapter 1

Lara stood in the British Museum, amidst the hundreds of scholars, adventurers, and archaeologists. Usually she hated these formal occasions, but it was always fun for her to dress up in an elegant gown and act like a proper lady for an evening.

Her friend Alistair had accompanied her to the ball, but had vanished as soon as he'd noticed the buffet table and Lara had been left to deal with all of the great British snobs on her own. She may have looked and sounded like an aristocrat, but Lara had grown to despise that sort of life.

Slowly, the old curator of the museum approached Lara on his walking stick; he was just about the only person Lara actually wanted to talk to. They were old friends, and the curator had known Lara's mother before Lara had even been born.

"Arthur" she said softly as he approached, giving him a friendly hug, "It's been months, how are you?"

"I'm afraid these old bones aren't what they used to be" Arthur laughed, leaning on his walking stick, "But setting up the new exhibit has been exciting at least"

"I'm glad" Lara smiled, "I'm just sorry I wasn't the one to find it for you"

"It's fine" Arthur nodded slowly, waving his withered old hand in the air as if to bat away the apology. Suddenly he paused, staring at Lara's face, "You look so much like her Lara…"

"Who… Mother?" Lara asked

"Ignore me" he laughed a husky old laugh, "Would you like to see the exhibit before everyone else pours in? I could give you an advanced preview if you like?"

"That sounds wonderful" Lara smiled a broad smile. Arthur was always nice enough to let Lara see the exhibit before everyone else was in the room because he knew how Lara hated being bothered when she was studying the many trinkets that Arthur liked to put on show in the museum.

Arthur led her through the crowd at a painfully slow pace. Lara always attracted stares at these sorts of functions because she'd become quite the celebrity, having supposedly died in Egypt and then triumphantly come back to continue her reign as the archaeologist adventurer who seemed to be able to separate fact from fiction when no one else could.

Eventually they reached the exhibition hall, where Arthur simply nodded to the security guard who unlocked the door and let them in. As Lara walked in she had to gasp at how different the hall had been set out since the last time she was there, when she'd been there last it was just full of glass cabinets filled with samurai katana's and armour, some of which she'd collected herself.

Now, however, the hall was laden with elaborate tapestries depicting scenes from Norse mythology, like the 'Ragnarok', the end of the world. Lara was familiar with the legends, but she was about to see actual proof, found in some of the tombs and temples in Iceland and Scandinavia that had only recently been discovered and chartered.

Before Lara had even scanned the entirety of the room her eyes settled on the one thing she'd been looking for.

"Gungnir…" she whispered to herself hoarsely, "How did you find it?"

Lara approached a huge glass case that held half of an elaborate javelin, rumoured to have been the javelin owned by the Norse god of wisdom, war, battle and death, Odin. The staff seemed to be made of mixtures of stone, wood, and metal, with elaborate carvings reaching from the broken handle to the massive spearhead at the end.

"It was almost by accident…" Arthur explained, "A young Icelandic boy stumbled upon a tomb, and being young and inquisitive, he ventured inside. We don't know the full details, but somehow he managed to unlock a great and ancient catacomb, where the remains of the javelin lay"

"That still doesn't explain how you came to acquire it" Lara said playfully, shooting Arthur an expectant glance

"Well the javelin made it's way here, to London, for analysis" Arthur explained, "and once it was verified as being Gungnir it was auctioned off to the highest bidder, although private collectors such as yourself were kept completely out of the loop"

"Evidently" Lara said, raising an eyebrow as she stared at the javelin, "But there's only half of the javelin left"

"Yes…" Arthur trailed off, "We've got some of our scholars working on that. The tomb where the boy found the javelin was searched from head to foot, every nook and cranny, but nothing was found"

"Nothing that an untrained eye can see…" Lara said, "I'd like to see this tomb for myself, do you have the location?"

"Of course" Arthur nodded, leading her out of the room and back towards his office, "Although I'm not entirely sure what you expect to find there"

"A clue, I hope" Lara said, "I seem to attract the mysteries of ancient broken weapons…"

"Ah, yes, your quest to find Avalon" Arthur said as they approached his office, "How's that going?"

"We've hit a bit of a stand-still" Lara sighed, "But I don't want to talk about that, there's no need"

They both entered Arthur's dark office and Lara instantly noticed the stench of stale whiskey. Usually she would have lectured Arthur on his excessive drinking but he was old and lonely, so she'd let that slide. He approached his desk and picked up a small leather book.

"Any information you need on the tomb is in there" he said, "Take care of the book"

"I will" Lara smiled. Suddenly there was a smash from down the hall, towards the exhibit. Lara's heart skipped a beat.

"Stay here" she hissed to Arthur as she slinked out of the office, closing the door behind her carefully. She made her way down the hall until she was near the exhibit. She could see two men in black mercenaries outfits guarding a door, but they were stood with their backs to Lara, both checking other hallways that led to the party area.

Lara quickly tore her slim red dress so that she could move her legs more freely and asked herself why at all these boring functions she somehow ended up ruining her dress. She slipped off her high-heels and moved low to the floor, her bare feet padded on the ground softly. In one swift movement she pulled one of the soldiers silenced handgun from his holster, gun-butted him to knock him out, and turned to point the fun at the other soldier before he'd turned around.

The second soldier looked over his shoulder and saw Lara pointing the gun at him,

"Put down your weapons and slide them over to me," she said. The soldier sighed to himself and started to oblige, sliding his AK47 machine gun to her feet and then his silenced handgun, identical to the one Lara had taken from the other soldier. She noticed a bulge on his right ankle, she pointed to it,

"And that one" she said, "don't try me, I can get nasty when I'm being impatient"

The soldier took a knife out from an ankle-holster and slid it over too. Lara walked over to him and stroked his face, which was covered by a black balaclava,

"Thanks for that" she winked at him and then made a clean kick to his chin, knocking him out instantly. She stared at his unconscious body and cocked an eyebrow, "Was that as good for you as it was for me?" she asked cockily.

Quickly she grabbed the AK47 and the other handgun and stood in front of the doors to the exhibit hall. She took a deep breath and then kicked the doors open. As if in a fluidic ballet dance she took down three soldiers, then hopped onto another one as she shot him, she flipped through the air shooting three more soldiers, and then another two as she landed, all before they'd even noticed her. She dropped the emptied handguns and quickly grabbed the AK47, pointing it at the only remaining man.

He didn't look like a soldier; he seemed Icelandic with a fair face and dark eyes. His hair was black and greasy and hung down to his shoulders. He wore gothic clothing, a long black coat and black boots and appeared to be wearing a metal glove like an elaborate gauntlet. In his gauntleted hand he held Gungnir.

"Drop the spear" Lara said threateningly

"I will not…" the man replied in an Icelandic accent

Lara pulled the trigger on the AK47 and nothing happened, it didn't even click like an empty gun should do. The Icelandic man held Gungnir as if he were about to throw it,

"You have no idea what this javelin is capable of" he said, "I know who you are Ms. Croft, and I'm not in the mood to have you chasing me to the ends of the Earth for this artefact"

He launched the javelin towards Lara, and as it glided through the air it glowed a deep purple. Lara threw her gun to the floor and dived aside. The javelin missed her by a few centimetres, but still Lara was swept by its power into a wall, hitting her head hard. Before she'd even fallen the ground she was already unconscious.


	2. Chapter 2

Lara woke up with her head splitting, she tried to lift it but it felt heavy and groggy. As she slowly opened her eyes she realised she was in her cavernous bedroom, wrapped up snugly in her quilts. It took a few minutes for her head to clear and for her to remember how she'd ended up back at home.

Winston, her elderly butler, came into her bedroom carrying a try with a glass of water and some medication on top. He smiled at her as he walked in.

"You're awake" he said in his gentle voice, "How are you feeling?"

"Strange…" Lara sighed, "and a little disappointed in myself"

"Disappointed?" Winston asked, handing her some headache tablets and the glass of water. Lara uttered the words "thank you" and then took the pills with a large gulp of the water.

"I couldn't get the javelin back" she replied eventually, lying back down and shielding her eyes from the light with her forearm

"I'm sure this isn't the end of it though?" Winston asked

"Not at all" Lara said defiantly, "I'm going to get that javelin back if it's the last thing I do"

"That's the spirit," Winston agreed as he picked up some of Lara's bedclothes from the floor

"How's Arthur?" Lara asked

Winston stopped suddenly, with the bundle of bedclothes in his folded arms and lowered his head.

"I'm sorry Lara…" he said, "By the time anyone got to his office he was already dead…"

"They killed him?" Lara said, sitting up suddenly despite the aching of her head, "Why?"

"His office had been ransacked" Winston explained, "I think they were looking for something that he refused to give to them"

"The book…" Lara uttered to herself, "Winston, did you find a small leather-bound book that I'd tucked inside my tights?"

"Yes, m'lady" he said, "I assumed it was important so I put it in the safe"

"Could you get it for me, please?" she asked politely

"Of course m'lady" he bowed, "would you like me to inform Alistair and Zip?"

"Yes, I'll need to talk with them about this" Lara nodded slowly, "Thank you Winston"

Her Butler left the room and Lara slowly climbed out of bed and made her way through the seating area in her large room to the walk-in wardrobe where she kept all of her clothes and equipment. She slipped into her comfortable clothing, a sports bra and a pair of baggy jogging trousers and made her way into the seating area again, resting on one of the cushy white sofa's as she tied her long brown hair into a ponytail.

After a minute or two, Winston arrived again with the book in his hands, wrapped in a purple satin sheet. Zip, Lara's streetwise African-American technology expert, and Alistair, an old friend of Lara's and an amazing scholar, both entered the room after Winston.

"Hey Lara" Zip said, "How you feeling?"

"I've been better" Lara sighed, "Alistair, can you tell me what happened at the museum?"

"Of course" Alistair said, taking a seat, "Well, after I'd finished scouring the buffet table I tried to find you in the main hall, but I couldn't, so I assumed Arthur had taken you to see the exhibit. I went to the exhibit hall and saw you were unconscious and something had been taken. So I made sure you were okay, called for help, and then I went to Arthur's office…" his voice trailed off, Lara knew what came next

"We have to find out who it was that took the spear" Lara said, unfolding the satin sheet and taking out the old cracked-leather book. She opened it up and revelled silently in the noise of the crisp old pages creaking sharply as they moved. She flicked through quickly, the first few dozen pages were all very old notes on Norse Mythology that Arthur had made, Lara would have Alistair go through them later.

Suddenly she saw something in the book and paused,

"What's up?" Zip asked, "You look like you've seen a ghost"

"I think I have…" Lara said, turning the book around, she showed Alistair and Zip a logo that had been drawn very sketchily on the page. It was of a dragon eating it's own tail.

"That looks Chinese…" Zip said

"No, it's definitely Norse" Alistair said, leaning in, "The shape of it is too serpentine to be a dragon…"

"It's the symbol of the Clan of Fenrir" Lara explained, then she held out the drawing "See? It's head is the head of a wolf, although with Arthur's drawing you can't see very well" she pointed to the badly-drawn wolf head in the notebook, "the Clan of Fenrir are little-known because as far as scholars are aware they're extinct, apparently they arose after the supposed Ragnarök from Norse Mythology… Although I'm not entirely sure why they worshipped Fenrir, I do know that they hated Odin and Thor"

"Curious…" Alistair pondered, "Do you think they could have been the one's who attacked you?"

"Possibly" Lara said, flicking through a few pages, "But I certainly know where I'm going to start my search…"

"Where?" Zip asked

"Iceland" Lara said, turning the book around again to show them a set of directions, "In the tomb where the spearhead of Gungnir was found…"


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning Lara found herself waking up in an uncomfortable bed in a small Icelandic village, not far from where the ruins were found. She slid out of bed and dressed into some of her exploring clothes. She pulled on a red vest-top and wore a low-cut black t-shirt over the top and a pair of black hot pants, then she slipped into her black leather boots with their red trim and buckled them up. She slipped on her black leather belt, which also had a red trim, and attached her grappling hook, PLD (Personal Lighting Device), and high-tech binoculars.

Then she wove her hair back into a French braid, strapped on her gun holsters, slipped in her custom-made handguns and put on her black and red tailored backpack, which looked small but had a surprising amount of room and small zip-up compartments. Then she put on her tiny headset, and pressed the button that automatically called the mansion back home. After a few rings, Zip answered,

"You ready?" he asked as he answered

"Just about" Lara said, making sure all of her equipment was securely fastened, "Is the camera working?" she asked, referring to the tiny camera that was installed in her headset, she walked over to the tiny rusted mirror in the corner of her room and waved at her own reflection

"Hello to you too" Zip laughed, "Yeah, you're coming in loud and clear"

"Good" Lara said, "Is Alistair about?"

"He's just sorting through his notes" Zip said, "Just you and me again"

"It's okay, you probably won't have much to see for a while" Lara said as she walked out into the open air. There were a few Icelanders in the village going about their daily business that completely ignored Lara, almost like they liked to pretend that pretty female upper-class English archaeologist adventurers with guns didn't exist. The day before, when Lara had arrived at the village she'd found the boy who'd discovered the tomb and paid him to show her where it was.

Now he stood in front of her in his children's clothes, with his small pale face, fair hair and piercing blue eyes. He didn't return Lara's smile as she approached,

"Are you ready to take me to the temple?" Lara asked friendlily in fluent Icelandic

"Yes" he replied in his native tongue, "We have to head up towards the waterfall" he pointed behind him where, about 600 meters or so away, there was a sheer cliff face with a waterfall dancing down off of it's edge, colliding with some jagged rocks at the base of the cliff and then leaking into a large pool below.

As they walked along together, Lara pointed to the pool,

"How come it doesn't overflow?" she asked, being careful not to accidentally talk in English

"Underground tunnels" the boy said, "the water goes somewhere, but we don't know where, no one has ever bothered to take a look"

"Could they lead to the temple?" Lara asked. The boy simply shrugged in reply.

It took them a few minutes to approach the base of the cliff. The boy started climbing cautiously over the rocks, towards where the waterfall collided with the rocks.

"Are you going to be okay?" Lara called, "It doesn't look safe"

"It's safe," the boy said without looking back

Lara hopped over the rocks, her expensive custom-made boots didn't slide even on wet surfaces or ice so even on the slimy rocks she managed to maintain her balance and catch up with the boy quickly.

As they got closer to the actual waterfall Lara was distinctly reminded of some of the sights she'd seen on her journeys in Ghana, with the soft water spray gliding softly over her face. The boy pointed into a gap behind the waterfall,

"It's in there" he said, "But I have to go in with you"

"Why?" Lara asked

"Let me show you" he said, walking up through the gap, dodging the heavy fall of water that was landing just a few meters away.

Lara followed him through the narrow gap into a small cave-like room with rough stonewalls. At one end of the room there were man-made stairs that led to an ornate stone door. The boy walked into the small room and started randomly grabbing the wall on the right side.

"What are you doing?" Lara asked, starting the sentence in English but quickly correcting herself and finishing in Icelandic.

"You'll see" the boy said, pushing on random rock protrusions, "I can't remember which one it is…"

"Which… what?" Lara was confused

Suddenly one of the protrusions the boy pushed became like a button and went into the wall, and as it did so the ornate stone door lifted. A musty moist smell drifted out through the open door and all Lara could see was darkness.

"I must warn you" the boy said suddenly, "the last time I was in there I think I activated the traps… quite a few researchers died in there"

"Something Arthur forgot to mention" Lara said to herself in English

"Huh?" Zip's voice came through suddenly, "Forgot to mention what?"

"That some traps were activated down there" Lara replied, "Some of the researchers died apparently" then she turned back to the boy and spoke in Icelandic, "thank you" she handed him a wad of money, "run home"

The boy ran back out through the gap and off towards the village, leaving Lara alone in the room. She turned on her PLD and headed through the newly opened doorway cautiously. Her light cast shadows on the old tapestries and dull grey and brown stone pillars of the entrance hall.

As she stepped forward Lara felt her foot hit something. She looked down and saw the body of one of the researchers with an arrow in his chest. Even more cautiously, she stepped forward. As she put all her weight on her next step, the large tile beneath her depressed and there was a click.

The ornate stone door behind her slid closed with a slam and in front of her a series of arrow-shooting mechanisms were activated. A few small stone slits opened and some sort of light poured into the chamber. Lara turned off her PLD again.

Without even thinking about it, Lara launched herself into a series of quick acrobatic flips and twists, narrowly avoiding the arrows. To a bystander it may have looked planned and skilful; when in reality it was pure luck that the arrow didn't impale her.

As she landed at the other end of the treacherous trap she turned to look at what she'd just avoided and took a deep breath.

"Don't do that again…" Zip said through the headset, "I thought I was gonna have a heart attack"

"Come now Zip" Lara teased, "There's no point in living if you don't risk your life every once in a while"


End file.
